Whether you are a solopreneur or own a business that employs ten employees, small-business owners are always busy, as only a business owner can fully understand. There’s never a time when everything is done, when there’s nothing on the to-do list for the moment, or when you go fully "off the grid." A current vision helps us to know why we’re doing what we’re doing, regardless of what’s going on outside of our business or the challenges that it presents to us.

Because there are always things vying for your attention, it’s all too easy to get caught up in "I’m too busy to vision or plan" thinking. And that’s exactly what many business owners do.

If it’s not a recession that is making it difficult to find clients, it’s a problem employee, recruiting needs, a business growth spurt, marketing challenges, or some other issue that provide an excuse to say, "I’m much too busy to plan or take time for visioning." Owning a business means owning challenges; it's that simple (and, for most of us, a pretty awesome reality that keeps us fresh and growing, even when we complain about the never-ending challenges!).

Your guiding vision and plan, however uncomplicated they may be, provide the very point from which to prioritize, respond to challenges, engage in creativity, see the time for looking at the forest above the trees. A business owner who doesn’t make time to plan or vision isn’t just ignoring one element of skillful business ownership, but he’s also making things a whole lot more difficult for himself.

Some experts say that there are people, business owners included, who are literally addicted to the adrenaline of being in constant crisis, which means that these business owners find ways to ensure that there is always a drama underway. This insight often surprises these crisis-creators, who weren't aware of their addiction.

Conscious enterprise is about being aware of how our own old beliefs and habits help or hurt us in our journey towards peace of mind and meaningful, effective, successful business ownership, and making the changes necessary to cultivate new, healthier patterns that will lead us to a sense of satisfaction and rewarding livelihood instead of burnout and regret.

Taking the time to reflect and vision can yield a supply of clarity, inspiration and direction that eludes the entrepreneur who’s always battling the latest of her chronic crises or who keeps himself so mired in the details that the business owns him.